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Murine leukemia virus-related RNA species were examined in a set of radiation-induced T-cell leukemias from BALB/c mice. No evidence was found for linkage of viral long terminal repeat-derived (U5) sequences to information of host origin. A novel class of 2-kilobase (kb) env-related transcripts, about 1 kb shorter than normal viral env messenger, was found in all the leukemias. All of the 2-kb transcripts contained sequences homologous to the xenotropic virus-related env sequences in the Friend spleen focus-forming virus, representing the N-terminal portion of gp7O. In two of the leukemias, these transcripts were found to contain both ecotropic plSE and U3 sequences in addition to the xenotropic gp7O-related sequence. These two leukemias, but not others in which ecotropic sequences were absent from the 2-kb RNA, harbored several copies of a specific class of env recombinant proviruses. These proviruses possessed full-size env genes and were submethylated, as shown by SmaI and XmaI digests of proviral DNA. Low levels of 2-kb RNA were found in normal thymocytes from strains BALB/c, AKR, and 129 but not from congenic 129 Glxmice. It is possible that the 2-kb RNA may originate by a novel splicing step that removes portions of the gp7O and plSE sequences from full-length env transcripts.

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